Discoveries

As a child, Peter Steyger, Ph.D., was given an aminoglycoside antibiotic to treat a severe case of meningitis. While this type of antibiotic is incredibly effective at treating life-threating infections, Dr. Steyger can tell you all about one of the drug’s potential side effects: deafness. Forty-eight years later, Dr. Steyger has finally discovered how those antibiotics caused his hearing loss. He found that the antibiotics cross a “blood-layrinth” barrier in the inner ear that transports … Read More

A team of researchers at OHSU, led by Stephen Back, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics and neurology, is the first to find white matter lesions in preterm infants using high-field MRI. These microscopic lesions, often missed by traditional MRIs, can cause significant disabilities in children, including cerebral palsy. By detecting the brain injuries sooner, families may have the option to begin therapy and rehabilitation sooner. However, according to Dr. Back, future studies are need … Read More

On Tuesday, October 18, OHSU leaders, students, faculty and staff gathered at the University Club in downtown Portland to celebrate the 2011 Technology Innovation Awards. This year, the group had a lot to celebrate: a record 118 industry-sponsored research agreements worth $12 million. The purpose of this annual ceremony is to recognize the value of commercialization with the ultimate goal of bridging the gap between promising research and public benefit. Researchers recognized at the ceremony … Read More

This month’s featured research, published in the Annals of Neurology, identifies a disease in non-human primates that has many similarities to multiple sclerosis (MS). The research is the result of a collaborative effort between multiple departments at OHSU and the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC). Like MS, Japanese macaque encephalomyelitis (JME) affects a small percentage of non-human primates. Since the macaque colony at ONPRC was established in 1965, only 56 cases of spontaneous, MS-like … Read More

OHSU researchers have been getting quite a bit of media attention because of next week’s World Congress on the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) in Portland. Here are some highlights you don’t want to miss: On Friday, September 16, OHSU announced a $25 million donation by Bob and Charlee Moore, founders of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods. The Moore’s donation will support research, policy, and public outreach related to the health effects of … Read More

A team of OHSU researchers and physicians, led by SuEllen Pommier, Ph.D., associate research professor in the division of surgical oncology, have recently published findings in the Annals of Surgical Oncology that suggest early mutations in breast cancer stem cells may be causing tumors to develop and recur—even after a patient is treated with chemotherapy and radiation. This discovery was the result of a novel method of working with samples taken directly from surgeries, not … Read More

A team of OHSU researchers, led by Daniel Marks, M.D., has discovered the brain mechanism that makes us feel tired when we’re sick. Sickness-induced fatigue, they found, happens in the orexin system, which regulates sleep and arousal. The good news? Treatments of sleep disorders using orexin have been studied for years. According to Dr. Marks, this should speed the time it takes to translate their research findings into a clinical treatment for tired, unmotivated patients … Read More

In a recent study co-authored by Henrique von Gersdorff, PhD, senior scientist at the Vollum Institute, OHSU researchers discovered that nerve cells in the eye require relatively high levels of vitamin C in order to function, leading them to believe that vitamin C may play a greater role in overall brain function than they had previously thought. Findings from the study were published in the June 29 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience. View the … Read More

New research by OHSU’s Glen Kisby, PhD, Peter Spencer, PhD, and collaborators, suggests that there may be a connection between neurodegenerative diseases, like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s, and cancer. Drs. Kisby and Spencer came to this conclusion by studying the effects of methylazoxymethanol (MAM), a genotoxin that appears to act as both a neurotoxin and a carcinogen, in both humans and animal models. According to Dr. Kisby: “The overlap of molecular pathways implicated … Read More

If you’ve ever worn braces, you know that maneuvering around those brackets with a toothbrush and floss can be tricky. Patients often experience plaque build up and unpleasant white spots as a result of permanent orthodontic appliances. Consequently, scientists have wondered: is one type of braces better in preventing bacteria and plaque build up than another? A team of researchers at OHSU’s School of Dentistry, led by Curt Machida, PhD, professor of integrative biosciences and … Read More